“Let me commend you on your trick,” Tayse said. “Very effective.”
Justin grinned. “Wasn’t sure we could pull it off, not when I saw a Rider every three paces for a quarter of a mile! And then getting through the front door-how to do that so no one saw it open?”
“And how did you?” Kirra asked.
Justin looked down at Ellynor, who answered in her sweet voice. “I made the shadow so deep no one would notice it, and then we slipped inside.”
“I’m even more concerned about how you breached the front gate, where I know four Riders were on duty,” Tayse said in a calm voice. “How did you manage to open that without anyone being the wiser?”
Justin shook his head. “Didn’t even try. We came in with another party last night-a group of nobles all dressed up, so I suppose they were arriving for dinner. Ellynor just cloaked us in magic, and we stepped in right behind them.”
Tayse nodded. “That’s a slight comfort, but very slight. You could bring a whole troop inside the palace grounds if you slipped them in by ones and twos behind other parties.”
Justin looked grave. “I wasn’t thinking about it that way yesterday, but you’re right.” His eyes narrowed; he was already considering solutions. “So then-maybe some kind of trip wire-the Lirrenfolk are impossible to see, but they still have weight and mass. Though, that won’t work-everyone would stumble over that.”
“What about dogs?” Kirra asked. She prodded Donnal and he sat up, ears pricked forward. “Or a wolf? Would Donnal have noticed you going by last night?” She glanced at Senneth. “We should have slept outside after all.”
“You might have heard or smelled us,” Ellynor admitted. “The few times my brothers were caught were when a guard dog raised the alarm. But I can cover almost all trace of our passage. It has to be a pretty smart dog.”
“Donnal’s an exceptional animal,” Kirra drawled. Donnal’s black mouth opened in a canine grin.
“Let’s try that,” Tayse said. “Over the next few days. See how well Ellynor can trick Donnal and what he has to do to catch her. See if Cammon can learn how to sense her, too.”
Senneth smiled at Ellynor, who looked a little startled. “He never asks,” she said. “He just assumes that everyone is as focused as he is on keeping the palace and all its inhabitants safe.”
“Of course-whatever I can do,” Ellynor said earnestly, and the rest of them laughed.
“Jerril can help, I bet,” Cammon said. To Ellynor he explained, “Jerril’s my tutor. He’s teaching me how to improve my magic.”
“Oh, because you’re so weak and useless to us now,” Justin said.
But Senneth was nodding. “Good idea.”
“You’ll like Jerril,” Cammon said to Ellynor, who did look just a bit nervous. “He couldn’t be nicer.”
“Not like the lot of us, you mean,” Kirra said lazily. “Unprincipled and ruthless.”
“Sounds about right,” Justin said with a grin.
“The problem remains,” Tayse said, “finding a way to make sure none of Ellynor’s friends and cousins-or enemies and uncles-can come stealing into the palace completely undetected. I hardly think we can expect Donnal to spend the remaining days of his life prowling these few acres and trying to scent out trouble.”
“Why can’t we use real dogs?” Justin said. “Specifically on the watch for someone trying to enter the gate by stealth?”
Tayse nodded. “We could do that. The head groom at the royal stables knows an animal trainer. We could work with him.”
Senneth glanced at Kirra. “And maybe we could supplement the real dogs with some enchanted ones,” she said. “I’ve been thinking it’s time to recruit more mystics.”
Kirra straightened in her chair. “Carrebos!” she exclaimed. “We can see who’s on hand there.”
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” Justin said.
“City not far from Fortunalt lands that apparently has become a community of mystics,” Senneth said. “Maybe some of them would like to come work for the king.”
Tayse looked intrigued. For a man who had distrusted magic for most of his life, he had become awfully willing to turn it to his advantage. “You think there might be shape-shifters among them? That would make an interesting contingent to add to the king’s troops.”
Senneth shrugged. “Won’t know till we go investigate. I thought Kirra and I could head down there in a few days and see what we might find.” Donnal barked sharply. “Donnal would come with us, of course,” Senneth added.
Tayse gave her a quick smile, private despite the fact that five other people could witness it. “So would I,” he said. Because I intend to never be parted from you again.
Kirra made a tiny cooing sound, but even that didn’t keep the slow shiver from tickling down Senneth’s spine. “So would you,” she agreed softly. Because I could not bear it if you were.
CHAPTER 11
IF Cammon had had to describe his emotional state during the next week, he would have called it sublimely content. Justin was back-the others had not yet departed-Amalie wanted to see him every morning-and Jerril was coming to the palace to practice magic. Nothing was missing from his life; every ingredient that he considered essential was solidly in place.
Three more suitors arrived that week, so Cammon had little chance for private conversation with Amalie. Instead, he and Valri and assorted Riders spent an aggregate of hours lurking behind the false walls and eavesdropping on three varieties of wooing. This should have been tedious in the extreme, but somehow it was not. Valri had had a couple of chairs and a small table hauled in, all of them just narrow enough to fit in the secret corridor, and she and Cammon sat there during every interview and silently played cards. When part of the conversation caught their attention, they would look up from their game and either laugh silently, or show their surprise, or roll their eyes and grimace in distaste. This made the hours pass in an entertaining fashion and kept Cammon from thinking too hard about the cold reality underlying the whole exercise: The princess was trying to pick her husband. He didn’t know why he so much disliked the idea of her getting married.
One reason, perhaps, was that none of the latest crop of beaux seemed remotely worthy of her. The first one was quite young, rather tongue-tied, and extremely nervous. Amalie was gentle with him, but Cammon didn’t need her critique afterward to know she had not considered him appealing. The second was older, very polished, and superficially agreeable, but Cammon found something about him to be repulsive. Maybe it was that Cammon sensed cold calculation in his admiring compliments and honeyed phrases. Maybe it was that Amalie laughed a great deal during their extended and playful conversation.
“You seemed to enjoy your visit with the Tilt lord,” Valri remarked once the suitor had gone off to change for dinner.
“He’s a toad,” Amalie said calmly. “He kept looking around the room as if wondering what it would be like to own the whole palace. And looking at me like-well. Like he was wondering what it would be like to own me.”
Valri seemed amused. “You’ve become rather an expert at concealing what you’re thinking, then. I couldn’t tell you disliked him.”
“I find it easier to pretend when I don’t like someone,” she said. “I might be more nervous when I do.”
She was not nervous in the presence of the third suitor, a Nocklyn man old enough to be her father. The noble had seated himself, accepted a glass of wine, and traded trivialities for a few moments before he broke off his speech with a laugh.
“I cannot believe a nineteen-year-old girl looks at me and sees a potential husband,” he said. “I am here because Mayva Nocklyn asked me to make a case for myself, not because I expect to win your hand. So let me enumerate all the advantages of my rank and station, and you can listen politely. Once that is all out of the way, we can talk of other things. I imagine that will be a much more pleasant way to pass the day.”